Difficult season for Warriors makes things only more...

1of8DeMarcus Cousins chats with Draymond Green (23) on the bench in the first half as the Golden State Warriors played the New York Knicks at Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, January 8, 2019.Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle

2of8Stephen Curry (30) gestures after hitting a three point shot in the first half as the Golden State Warriors played the New York Knicks at Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, January 8, 2019.Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle

3of8Klay Thompson (11) flips a loose ball to a teammate in the first half as the Golden State Warriors played the New York Knicks at Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, January 8, 2019.Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle

4of8Kevin Durant (35) blocks a shot by Enes Kanter (00) in the first half as the Golden State Warriors played the New York Knicks at Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, January 8, 2019.Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle

5of8The bench reacts to a three point shot made by Klay Thompson (11) in the first half as the Golden State Warriors played the New York Knicks at Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, January 8, 2019.Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle

6of8Klay Thompson (11) defends against a shot by Kevin Knox (20) in the first half as the Golden State Warriors played the New York Knicks at Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, January 8, 2019.Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle

7of8Kevin Durant (35) shoots a three pointer in the first half as the Golden State Warriors played the New York Knicks at Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, January 8, 2019.Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle

8of8Stephen Curry (30) high fives Draymond Green (23) in front of Kevin Knox (20) in the first half as the Golden State Warriors played the New York Knicks at Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, January 8, 2019.Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle

The first half of the Warriors’ Very Weird Season is over. You might call it troubling. I prefer to call it entertaining.

And the festivities should ramp up even more soon. According to reports Tuesday, DeMarcus Cousins might make his Warriors debut a little later this month, when the Warriors head to Los Angeles for games against the Clippers and the Lakers, on Jan. 18 and 21.

That’s just a target date, because you can never predict what 270 pounds on a repaired Achilles tendon will do. But it is one more tantalizing chapter in what has been a very interesting Warriors season.

“We talked to our team this year about quadrants,” Steve Kerr said. “Four 20-game quadrants to help organize the season. … These coming 20 games will be about improving our consistency. And it will be about incorporating DeMarcus at some point.”

The first two quadrants have been unexpectedly dramatic. Even before we get the appearance of Boogie Cousins in a Warriors uniform, the season has been full of surprises.

Klay Thompson (11) watches his shot go in in the first half as the Golden State Warriors played the New York Knicks at Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, January 8, 2019.

Though that’s a very good record (for reference, please rewind to the 2000-01 season when the team won 17 total games), it seems to trouble the victory-drunk fans who have seen their team win an average of 35 games in the first half for each of the past four seasons. Who have not seen their team lose three in a row at home with Stephen Curry in uniform (a skid that ended with Tuesday’s win). Who had not seen their team lose four in a row under Kerr, as they did in November.

Yes, it has been a strange season from the start:

•The drama of the Draymond Green-Kevin Durant dust-up. Though these things happen, this was the first real crack we’ve seen in Team Chemistry’s happy veneer. It led to a one-game suspension of Green, weeks’ worth of analysis of body language, and a lot of jumping to conclusions. (Trade Draymond! K.D. is out of here!) The drama seems to have passed, but the chemistry definitely seems different. Some of that is understandable — these players have been together nonstop for years. But will it be strong enough to carry the Warriors to another title?

•The Christmas turkey. The Warriors’ most embarrassing game of the season was in the most high-profile slot. It was shocking to see the Warriors fall so flat in a nationally televised, super-hyped game against LeBron James and the Lakers. The team’s inability to rally once James went out with an injury was particularly strange. The Warriors will be looking for some payback, perhaps with Cousins, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day at Staples Center.

•The Patrick McCaw mystery. Another ding in the team’s once-flawless shine: McCaw didn’t want to play for the Warriors and signed a non-guaranteed two-year contract with lowly Cleveland, which the Warriors chose not to match. Adding to the weirdness: Cleveland released McCaw on Monday, and reports have the NBA launching an investigation into the entire transaction — at the Warriors’ request.

•The backward youth movement. Before the season started, Kerr and general manager Bob Myers emphasized that developing young players would be a key to the season. But that doesn’t seem to be happening. Damian Jones will miss almost the entire season with an injury. Jordan Bell seems to have gone backward. Draft pick Jacob Evans is invisible in Santa Cruz. Only Kevon Looney continues to make a significant impact.

•The inability to protect the home court. For all the sentiment about the last season at Oracle, the Warriors haven’t rewarded the hometown fans. They’ve already lost six games at home (including the best game of the season, the overtime thriller to Houston on Thursdays). In the first three seasons under Kerr, they lost a total of nine home games (12 last season when injuries took their toll). The Town was expecting a lot more.

•The Durant speculation. Durant’s free-agency decision has been a lurking presence all season and looms larger at certain times, like Tuesday with the Knicks in town. “The sexy thing is what happens in the summer, more than what happens in the season,” Durant told a bunch of New York reporters who peppered him with questions he couldn’t answer. The New York Daily News back page: “HE DIDN’T SAY NO!”

•The fatigue/boredom factor. It was present last season and is back again, as the team tries for its fifth straight Finals appearance. Kerr told a story about broadcasting a game with Charles Barkley and Marv Albert. Albert said that a certain lethargy seemed to have settled into the team they were covering. Barkley said, “Marv, I don’t know what lethargy means, but if it means they suck, I agree with you.”

“There’s no question that at times this year we’ve been a little lethargic,” Kerr said. “It’s probably human nature after so many years of competing at a high level. We’re halfway through. We’ve got to be better, more consistent.”

Born in San Francisco and raised in Marin County, Ann Killion has covered Bay Area sports for more than two decades. An award-winning columnist and a veteran of 11 Olympics, several World Cups and the Tour de France, Ann joined The Chronicle in 2012. Ann has worked for the San Jose Mercury News, the Los Angeles Times and Sports Illustrated. She is a New York Times best-selling author, having co-written "Solo: A Memoir of Hope" with soccer star Hope Solo,"Throw Like A Girl" with softball player Jennie Finch and two middle-grade books on soccer, “Champions of Women’s Soccer” and “Champions of Men’s Soccer.” She was named California Sportswriter of the Year in both 2014 and 2017. She has two children and lives in Mill Valley.